Uncle Seth

Alright, I lied. This will be the last one. This was the only thing I wrote today since I was studying for finals, and I really need to go to bed before work bright and early at 5 am! And this is pretty rushed I think, but oh well. Here goes:

I knew I was awake. I could feel my consciousness arousing but I couldn't seem to shake the grogginess I was feeling off. I tried to open my eyes, but they slid closed again after getting only half way there. My body was aching everywhere and I didn't dare move. I heard people prattling on about something, but it was all mumbling to me. My hearing wasn't clear at all, and my head was fogged up. Finally, I gave in and fell back asleep.

I refused to fall asleep again this time. I was going to get up. After trying to stay fully alert four times, I was determined to stay awake. I managed to get my eyes all the way open, but when I looked around my vision was blurry. Lifting my arm, I tried to rub them out a little bit, but it ached to move any part of my body. Even just shaking my head softly trying to clear my mind caused massive amounts of pain. A nurse must have seen the pained look on my face as I felt another shot of pain meds get squirted into my IV and spread throughout  my body.
"Thanks," I mumbled to the unknown angel. They would never know just how much those drugs meant to me. But maybe that was the drugs talking.
"You're welcome, Macayle. Hey dear, are you really awake this time? If you are, there's someone here to see you. The doctor said that once you woke up you could have visitors, and once you get checked, you could most likely leave here."
Kathrine was back again, and she was looking at me at eye level. I appreciated the gesture, making it seem like she wasn't looking down upon me. I smiled a little at the thought of a visitor, but it was the fact I was going to be released so very soon that made me grin. My mind began rummaging through all the people I knew that would come to see me, if any could break me free. Danae was probably my best bet, but I supposed it could be any number of the girls on the team. It definitely wouldn't be any family, seeing as I had none even relatively close to the area.
"Yeah, sure. Who is it?"
"Oh, he'll be right in momentarily." Hmm, I wonder who it could be. He, eh? Odd.
I continued to think about who this mystery man could possibly be. I guess Jason could be it. Or Dallas perhaps. Ew. I really hope it's not Dallas, I grimaced. No one wanted to have a stalker around, and definitely not at the hospital no less. Oh, no, I realized how stupid I was. It will be Tanner. Forced friends since childhood for being neighbors until we grew up enough to actually like each other. It's got to be him.
Lying down more peacefully at figuring out who it was, I tried not to get too anxious. I hadn't seen anyone since... the accident. I wasn't even sure how many days it had been since that happened. For all I knew it was two weeks ago.
I made a mental note to ask Kathrine when she came back in how long I'd been here. Once it had been etched into my mind, I heard a knock on my door.
"Come in," I called out, my nerves acting up. I plastered a smile on my face, hoping to at least look somewhat okay for company.
The man that walked through the door though was not at all who I was expecting.
Uncle Seth was seven years older than I was, but he didn't look a day over 18. At 24, he was really well off and hardly ever worked anymore. He was one of those millionaires because he invented some gizmo for some gaming system; I wasn't actually sure. Video games were never my strong point. Then again, to be honest, I didn't know much about him at all. Not to mention the fact I hadn't seen him in almost four years, not since Aaron's funeral. From what I heard from my parents, he had done a lot of changing in the last six years, two of which he spent in another country preaching who knows what. He left about a month after the funeral. Other than that though, I didn't pay enough attention to understand anything else they told me about him since he never came back to visit. All I knew was that shortly after he got back, he landed a job with Nintendo, or Blizzard or some other big wig gaming company and his life had since skyrocketed.
"Hey, Macayle. What's with the look of shock on your face? Aren't you happy to see your old Uncle?" he asked with a grin. My face softened then and a small smile came to be. It was refreshing to have someone smile at me for once and not just look at me with concern drawn on their face.
"It's been a while. I was sure you'd forgotten about me you know. You kind of disappeared after Aaron passed away."
He looked down, ashamed perhaps? I couldn't tell. It took him a moment to look back at me. "I know I did," was all he said.
"Hey, don't worry about it," I told him. "Life happens, right?" I made that sound much more bitter than I'd meant it to be. It wasn't directed at him, but more of my whole situation in life right now.
"Yeah, it does. But that doesn't excuse anything. You're my family, one of the closest relatives I've got. Probably the closest relative now, actually."
My heart hurt for him a bit. I guess I wasn't the only one to lose a family member. He lost his sister, whom he had been very close to. Now I just felt selfish.
"I was wondering though, if you'd let me make that up to Mac?"
My eyes narrowed at him. What could he possibly do that could accomplish that?
"If you don't have any other arrangements, I want you to come live with me. I mean, I've got the room and the resources to say the least, and to be honest I miss having you around. You were practically a little sister to me, every summer I stayed with your mom."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was he really offering to let me move in? No, no, I must have heard wrong. I stared at him skeptically. He must have taken my shock as a bad sign as he continued speaking.
"I'm sorry Macayle. I used to be such a big part of your life, and then, I just fell off the face of the earth." He sighed to himself before proceeding. "I'm here now though. Do you think you can forgive me?" His eyes were pleading with me, hoping that I could look past all these things had happened and were happening and just embrace him with open arms.
I was more than willing. I still had family left, even if it was just an uncle. That was more than I could say a few days ago. I couldn't help it as a grin began to come across my face
"For sure, Uncle Seth." The look on his face was priceless. I wished I had had a way to capture it somehow. "Don't you think it's about time to break me free from this place?"
He was grinning from ear to ear. "Alright, alright. I'll get you out of here. We'll leave as soon as you can be released. Sound good?" I could hear the excitement in his voice.
"Oh yeah," I said, mimicking the Kool-aid man. He laughed at me as he practically skipped out the door.
I chuckled, content. Maybe life wasn't going to be so bad. I may have lost my parents, and it may be horrible and awful and entirely not fair, but at least I had Uncle Seth. I had to keep telling myself that, or who knows what would happen to my sanity.